With just a month to go for its worldwide release, all focus is now on Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. But lest you forget, that ‘Part One’ in the title is a not-so-subtle reminder that this is a two-parter, with another one headed to theaters next year. Understandably, Paramount Pictures, along with McQuarrie and the team want to keep the emphasis locked on the first one. But in an exclusive feature in Empire Magazine’s latest issue, McQuarrie spilled some beans on the sequel as well.
The exclusive feature reveals that Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two is 40 percent complete, leaving the crew with 1 year to film the remaining 60 percent. In their quest for capturing exotic, unseen locations on cinema, the filmmakers went to the real Arctic for principal photography. And much like the first movie’s approach of starting filming with the big action sequences, McQuarrie maintains that they’re getting these sequences out in the can first. In his excitement, he almost comes close to talking about the big stunt they have in store for the second part, before holding back.
Tom and I are always trying to get the big shit out of the way first. South Africa was intense. The aerial sequence is… It’s just outrageous. I’m so excited about what’s coming in Part Two. The thing to remember as you’re watching this monster is that another monster waits behind it.
It’s possible the stunt that McQuarrie is referring to is related to the setup we saw before the Cinemacon trailer for Dead Reckoning Part One. In that snippet, Cruise introduced the trailer by welcoming fans and gave them a sneak peek into the stunt they were filming for the next movie. McQuarrie then arrives on a different plane nudging Cruise to get on with filming before the duo swerve their way out of camera, all while Cruise is holds on to the plane, seemingly without any harnesses. If that’s the kind of daredevilry we’re getting as the introduction to a trailer, I can only imagine what the actual stunt will have in store for audiences all over.
Unfortunately, McQuarrie has hit another hurdle: the ongoing writer’s strike. He explains that the strike has basically halted production and, as the feature describes it, “stopped McQuarrie in his tracks”. But as the pandemic revealed, McQuarrie is always at the cutting-edge of dealing with challenges. And this one, as much of a bummer as it is, is no different.
It’s unrelenting. Behind each tsunami is another tsunami. We live in a state of 24-hour tsunami awareness. That’s just what we do.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two is currently set for release on June 28, 2024. It remains to be seen though if the writer’s strike has a longstanding impact on its production and consequently, its release date.
